Homelab - Will ESXi 6.5 run on Intel NUC?

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5 is here and while you should wait to upgrade your production, it's time to explore the new features in your Homelab. I've received a few questions on whether it is safe to upgrade.

Short answerESXi 6.5 will run on 5th and 6th Gen NUCs just as ESXi 6.0 U2

Long answer...

Important information before upgrading to vSphere 6.5

If your Homelab runs one of the following products, please consider that the following products are not compatible with vSphere 6.5 at this time:

VMware NSX

VMware Integrated OpenStack

vCloud Director for Service Providers

vRealize Infrastructure Navigator

App Volumes

Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode

Integrated OpenStack

vCloud Networking and Security

vRealize Business for Cloud

vRealize Configuration Manager

vRealize Hyperic

vRealize Networking Insight

ESXi 6.5 on 5th/6th Gen NUC

Intel NUC6i7KYK (Intel Core i7-6770HQ Skull Canyon)

Intel NUC6i5SYH (Intel Core i5-6260U)

Intel NUC6i5SYK (Intel Core i5-6260U)

Intel NUC6i3SYH (Intel Core i3-6100U)

Intel NUC6i3SYK (Intel Core i3-6100U)

Intel NUC5i7RYH (Intel Core i7-5557U)

Intel NUC5i5RYH (Intel Core i5-5250U)

Intel NUC5i5MYHE (Intel Core i5-5300U vPro)

Intel NUC5i5RYK (Intel Core i5-5250U)

Intel NUC5i3RYH (Intel Core i3-5010U)

Intel NUC5i3MYHE (Intel Core i3-5010U)

Intel NUC5i3RYK (Intel Core i3-5010U)

The ESXi 6.5 stock image can be installed without any issues on 5th Gen and 6th Gen NUCs including the latest i7 Skull Canyon. Drivers for all onboard NICs (I218-LM, I219-LM and I219-V) are available in the stock image. Drivers for NVMe devices and any SATA AHCI controllers are also available without any customizations.

Upgrade to ESXi 6.5

Upgrade a running installation to ESXi 6.5 is very simple. Download the Offline Bundle, copy it to the datastore and run the following command:

Hi
So is the VM6.5 support the usb 3.1 directly without problem ? And can you passthrough a keyboard or mouse in 6.5 ? As previous released it never work without a dedicated usb add-on card, pass to the vm.
Thanks

Before upgrade to 6.5 i've made a backup of entire esxi disk to file using Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional 15
I've also a previous backup done with same paragon software
Inside this backup there's a VM that i need to recover..

Someone know if it's possible to do it without recover all esxi disk ?

Any idea how the licensing is going to play out with 6.5? With previous versions you could remove the eval license and keep using it forever, but the eval license for 6.5 is built in, so I wonder what will happen 60 days from now.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to have to start following your site. I found it through some web searches last week, and it's a great site.

I've read about not being able to power on VMs after the eval period, but I've never seen that. Is that with vCSA, or is that related to something else? I've been running a home lab ESXi server for years, and I currently run it at 6.0.2, and both that and 5.x ran in a "runs forever" mode, where everything works on a single host. I don't have vCSA, but with a solo hypervisor host, I don't need that; is the "can't power on" limitation in vCSA?

Hey there. Just to share my experience with a NUC6i5SYH. My first try of the upgrade from ESXi6.0-latest to 6.5-GA failed in that manner, that the upgrade itself was successfull, but I could start any of my VMs afterwards. So I did a "Shift-R" to my previous version. But in order to be some time able to upgrade to v6.5, my error was:

But after update there is no Bluetoothadapter found, and there are some usb passthrough Problems."

Hi, I also can confirm that no Bluetooth adapter was found on my Intel 8260. I did discover that I could passthrough the onboard GPU (Iris Pro Graphics 580)to Windows 10 64bit but, even though the graphics driver installed OK, so far I can't get any screen to function on any port. Interestingly, Quicksync is working fine as I ran a few Handbrake encodes with Quicksync enabled that ran VERY well.

Which Client did you use to power on the VM? vCenter or Standalone ESXi? Since vSphere 6.5 the c# Client still works with the ESXi Host itself but many features are missing/buggy. With 6.5 you should use the Host Client (https:///ui/)
Do all VMs have the same problem, or just one?
Check vmware.log in the VM directory and /var/log/vmkernel.log for errors.

I tried to install 6.5 stock on my NUC5i3RYH. After I tell it to install to the SSD I get "errno 3: No such process" and that the system is waiting for the installation to begin. Any ideas? I'm not finding any hints anywhere.
From what is said on the page here there should be no issue with the stock image without any special changes. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I've tried using both legacy boot and UEFI boot on the DVD with no success. It's really odd because I was able to install from exactly he same DVD (in the same USB drive) on my NUC5i7RYH just a week before. Both NUCs are even sporting the same 500GB Samsung Evo 850 SATA SSD.

The one thing I hadn't tried was checking the bios for an update. Sure enough I had version 0130 Dec 2014, and 0361 is the newest version from Dec 2016. I updated and the installer proceeded without any trouble.

Driver works great. i have a different cosmetic issue. when directly connected to esx, i can configure an intel nic to the vswitch , but not the usb nic. thought to check and see if anyone has seen this.

I am debating if i should spend more and go a generation older to get the NUC5i5MYHE to get Vpro. Vpro is nearly a must have and I am thinking it might be worth going older and slower (and more money) to get it. Anyone have any opinion?

I just installed 6.5 on a new NUC6i5SYH which has a 275gb crucial m.2 ssd. it installed fine and seemed to install at normal speeds. now though its horribly slow, something is up with either the ssd or drivers or something. i tried to upload an iso and it took forever, max i could get was like 20mbit. i assumed it was an issue with http upload to the datastore. but now i am trying to install the OS (window 2012 r2) and its taking forever at getting files ready for installation. i am seeing extremely high latency and max speeds of around 5MB/s with the latency constantly over 100ms (way too high for an ssd). I dont know if its my nuc, my ssd, or 6.5 issue. I will start diagnosing one by one. anyone else have this kind of issue with m.2 ssd with 6.5 on nuc6i5?

Unfortunately, I do not get to install ESXI on the INTEL NUC: NUC6i5SYH with a Samsung SM951 M.2 MSATA 256GB HIGH SP.
The installation will stay at 9% what can I do? If I install ESXI on a 2.5 inch ssd then the installation goes smoothly.

Trying to install via the online depot, the update option fails to make any changes. Changing this to "install" throws a warning that it will replace two VIBs, specifically 'VFrontDe_bootbank_sata-xahci_1.28-1' & 'VMware_bootbank_lsu-lsi-mptsas-plugin_1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2494585'. These are the custom drivers I needed to install when first setting this machine up. Is there an issue with overwriting? Based on your article, I am assuming no but am hesitant to proceed. Thoughts?

I need some help with my NUC ESXi 6.5 issue. I have a Skull Canyon and I am running 6.5 Well, but I needed another nic and got one of the mentioned usb3 nics for the NUC. I downloaded William Lam's driver and had no problem installing it. However when using it, after a period of time. The nic goes dead!! Even when ESXi reports it functioning, I am not able to use it. The only way to bring the USB3 nic back up is to shutdown everything and power cycle it back up. I tried an alternate driver using the same chipset and still the same issue. I thought that the USB was being powered down, but the BIOS is not using any sleep mode or power down modes. I am at my wits on this one and any help would be appreciated.